British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

　　或許先有英式英語的，但美式拼寫方法現在流行得多。

　　A recent examination of these two variants of the English language show that publications now largely use the American version, swapping words like ‘centre’ for ‘center’ after the 1880s.

　　最近一項研究審視了這兩大英語語言的變種，發現出版期刊如今大幅使用美式英語，自19世紀80年代后，就把centre這樣的詞語替換成center。

　　According to the data, this shift was further strengthened around the time of World War I – and as the language evolved, even the British have ditched the spelling of some words for their trans-Atlantic counterparts.

　　從數據看，這一變化在一戰期間又進一步加劇，隨著語言的演變，甚至英國人自己也摒棄有些單詞的拼寫方式，換成大西洋彼岸的美式拼寫。

　　Among many words, including ‘grey’ and ‘flavour,’ British English can be seen dwindling around 1880, when American English began to cross into wider use.

　　眾多詞匯里包括"grey"和“flavour”。大約在1890年間，英式英語開始衰退，而美式英語的運用卻越來越廣泛。

　　Since then, English-language publications have preferred ‘gray’ and ‘flavor,’ and despite fluctuations in use over the years, they’ve remained more popular than the preceding versions since overtaking them.

　　自此以后，英語出版物也開始偏向用"gray"和“flavor”。盡管多年來就如何拼寫有過反復，自從美式英語趕超英式英語之后，"gray"和“flavor“比起之前的拼寫方式而言，還是更受歡迎。

　　During World War I, the world also began to favor ‘defense’ over the British English version, ‘defence.’

　　一戰期間，世界也開始喜歡用“defense”，而非英式版本的“defence”。

　　注：藍色為美式英語，紅色為英式英語。

　　For many years, British English maintained its hold on ‘honour,’ grappling with the American version for years as the two flip-flopped in popularity around the world. In the 1970s, however, American English gained a clear lead as ‘honor’ increasingly became the more spelling of choice.

　　多年來，英式英語保持著“honour”的拼法，和美式英語相持不下，隨著這兩種英語的地位互換，受歡迎程度也起了變化。然而，在20世紀70年代，美式英語取得領先，“honor”的拼法逐漸成為拼寫主流。

　　（來源：滬江英語）